We have celebrated Religious Freedom Day here on Daily Kos for the past three years, with a week of posts commemorating one of the great advances in the liberation of the human mind, the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. In 1991 Congress designated January 16th as Religious Freedom Day to celebrate enactment of the Virginia Statute, stipulating only that it be commemorated by a presidential proclamation. Informed people on all sides tend to agree that the taproot of religious freedom in the United States is the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, originally drafted by Thomas Jefferson in 1777 and shepherded through the Virginia legislature by James Madison in 1786. The following year, Madison served as the principal (but certainly not the only) author of the Constitution, and in 1789, as the principal author of the First Amendment.
Suffice to say that even fundamental freedoms can be fragile and must not be taken for granted, especially in the age of Trump. That’s why more than 60 organizations comprising the Coalition for Liberty and Justice, an alliance of more than 60 civil liberties, human rights, and religious and secular groups (including Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Catholics for Choice, American Atheists, the National Council of Jewish Women and my employer, Political Research Associates) see Religious Freedom Day as an opportunity to answer Christian Right claims about the meaning of religious freedom. At the very least, I think we will see a flurry of op-ed and other writing and a lot of social media.
Caveat Emptor! There is no official Religious Freedom Day web site (although an evangelical education outfit managed to purchase the web address for Religious Freedom Day and make it look rather official.
There is a Religious Freedom Day group here on Daily Kos, and we invite people interested in participating to join us. Although the Day itself is Tuesday, January 16th, in the past, we have encouraged religious freedom related posts for a week in the run up to the Day, in part to afford everyone the chance to be heard and not lost in a deluge. To accomplish that we set a schedule of posts so that we could pace it as well as possible. Whether or not you are able to schedule writing in this way, we welcome whatever you are able and inclined to do.
To get things started this year, I published an interview with historian John Ragosta, author of Religious Freedom: Jefferson’s Legacy, America’s Creed (University of Virginia Press, 2013) who has been writing about the origins of the U.S. approach to religious freedom, particularly the Virginia Statute, the circumstances that gave rise to it and what it means for understanding religion, law and politics in our time.
Here is a brief excerpt from our interview at Religion Dispatches
Thomas Jefferson wanted to highlight just three things on the monument that marks his grave–and “not a word more.” Although his remarkable life included being President, Ambassador to France, and Secretary of State, he wanted to be remembered as author of the Declaration of Independence, “Father of the University of Virginia,” and author of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. Why, among his many accomplishments did he so want to be remembered for this 18th century law that most Americans have never heard of?
Jefferson saw these three things as the great accomplishments of his life: political freedom, religious freedom, and educational freedom and opportunity. Of the three, he thought religious freedom was the foundation because without freedom to think and believe, you could not have the other two. A republic could not work if government and church officials (what Jefferson referred to as an alliance of “kings, nobles, and priests”) were trying to control what we think or prescribe what was the “best” religion or which people were the “best” citizens based upon their religious beliefs. If people were to make informed political choices themselves, they had to be free to think for themselves, especially about religion. For Jefferson and his supporters, religious freedom for all was central to our democracy.